How Concierge Commission Works and Who It Favours

Most concierge services earn 5 to 15 percent commission from the hotels, operators and venues they book you into, in addition to any fee you pay. It is standard practice and not inherently wrong. It becomes a problem when the recommendation you receive is shaped by which supplier pays, rather than which suits you.

How the money actually flows

When a concierge books you into a hotel, the hotel typically pays them a percentage of the room revenue. The same applies to charter operators, villa agencies and some restaurants. You do not see it on your invoice, because it comes out of the supplier's margin rather than being added to your bill.

That last point matters and is often misunderstood: commission usually does not make your booking more expensive than booking direct. The supplier has already priced for distribution. What it does is give your concierge a financial reason to prefer one supplier over another.

Where does it actually conflict with your interests?

Three situations, in ascending order of seriousness.

• Selection bias. Two comparable hotels; one pays 12 percent, one pays nothing. Both are good. You are shown the one that pays. Nothing was misrepresented and you are still worse off than if you had seen both.
• Upselling. Commission is a percentage, so a larger booking pays more. The suite generates more than the room; the heavy jet more than the midsize. The incentive is to solve your problem expensively.
• Suppressed alternatives. The genuinely serious case: the best answer for you pays nothing at all, so it is never mentioned. A direct booking, a smaller operator, or simply not going.

We are describing our own industry here, and we would rather you know it than find out later. This is the mechanism you should test for in any provider, including this one.

How do you test a provider for it?

Four questions. The answers tell you more than any brochure.

1. "Do you earn commission on this booking, and roughly how much?" The answer you want is a straight yes with a figure. A provider who is evasive on a direct question about their own revenue is telling you something.
2. "What else did you consider, and why did you rule it out?" A shortlist with reasons is a good sign. A single option presented as the only possibility rarely is.
3. "Is there a cheaper way to do this?" The useful answer sometimes is "yes, book it direct" — and a provider who will say that on a small booking is one you can trust on a large one.
4. "Would you still recommend this if it paid you nothing?" Blunt, and revealing.

Is a fee-only model better?

It removes the conflict, and it costs more. A provider who takes no commission has to recover that revenue from you directly, which is why fee-only services sit at the higher end of the bands in what a luxury concierge service costs. That is a legitimate trade and worth considering if your bookings are large enough that a few percent matters more than the fee.

The middle position — commission taken, disclosed on request, with alternatives shown — is where most reputable providers sit. It is workable, provided the disclosure is real rather than buried.

What this changes about choosing a model

Commission sits inside your booking prices under both membership and pay-per-request, so it does not shift the break-even in membership or pay per request. What it does change is how you read a low headline fee. A provider charging noticeably below the market is not necessarily cheaper — they may simply be recovering more of their revenue from suppliers, which means more of your recommendations are shaped by who pays.

The cheapest-looking membership and the most conflicted advice are frequently the same product.

Common questions

Does commission make my booking more expensive?

Usually not. Suppliers price for distribution, so the commission comes from their margin rather than being added to your rate. The cost to you is not in the price but in which options you are shown.

Are concierges required to disclose commission?

There is no general obligation across the markets a concierge operates in, so disclosure is largely a matter of the provider's own policy. That is precisely why asking directly is worth doing.

Can I ask a concierge to rebate their commission?

You can, and some will on large bookings, particularly when you are also paying a substantial fee. Expect a firm no from providers whose whole model depends on it, which is itself useful to know.

Is it a bad sign if a concierge takes commission?

No. It is standard across travel and hospitality. The signal to watch is not whether they take it but whether they will tell you, and whether they show you options that pay them nothing.

Ask us the four questions

They apply to us as much as to anyone else. If a recommendation from our desk ever looks like it was chosen for our benefit rather than yours, ask what else we considered — you should get a shortlist with reasons. Put a real request to us and judge the answer on that basis.